VP Design - Berghaus

We’re Pentland Brands: a global family business behind some of the world’s most iconic active and lifestyle brands. We bring integrity, energy and ambition to our work, setting high standards and striving to deliver great outcomes without ego.

With over 1,500 team members worldwide, we’re proud of our diverse, inclusive culture where everyone is encouraged to speak up, challenge thinking, create breakthroughs and collaborate openly. Our people are what set us apart, and we’re committed to creating an environment where everyone can thrive.

Reports to: SVP Berghaus

Location: Farringdon, London

Hours: 36.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday (4.30pm finish on a Friday)

The VP Design Mission:

The role of VP Design at Berghaus is to lead the brand’s creative direction on a seasonal basis—anchored in our brand pillars, brand DNA, and our long-standing commitment to purposeful innovation for life outdoors. You will bring progressive design thinking, consumer insight, and technical expertise to the product creation process, ensuring we continue to deliver market-leading gear that helps people enjoy the outdoors, whatever the conditions.

This role is a key member of the Berghaus Brand Leadership Team, responsible for shaping creative direction, leading product range design, and working collaboratively across the brand to define and execute our commercial and brand strategies.

Born in the North East of England, Berghaus has been innovating in the outdoors since 1966—designing pioneering performance gear built to withstand the world’s toughest environments. From the peaks of the UK to expeditions across the globe, we’ve outfitted explorers, adventurers, and everyday outdoor enthusiasts for nearly 60 years. Engineering lies at the heart of what we do, and our ambition remains unchanged: create gear that performs brilliantly, lasts longer, and inspires more people to spend time outside. We're authentic, bold, and relentlessly focused on pushing what’s possible in outdoor performance.

How you'll drive success:

• Codify and elevate Berghaus’ brand DNA across all products—ensuring a distinct, credible, and progressive expression of the brand for both technical performance and lifestyle consumers.

• Serve as a key member of the Brand Leadership Team, inspiring teams with creative direction and working collaboratively to deliver our brand and business plans.

• Be accountable for the global storytelling, seasonal narratives, and design direction across all product categories, setting the creative foundation for the brand.

• Partner closely with Innovation, Merchandising, and Product teams to drive commercial growth and deliver consumer-centric new product development.

• Partner with other design leaders across Pentland Brands and Content & Creative to foster the Creator Mindset of the design community to challenge and engage designers to collaborate and cross-pollinate innovation and creativity

• Explore collaboration opportunities both internally and across the wider Outdoor, Sport and Fashion Industry to enable brand enhancing opportunities and champion the brand externally

• Foster a curious mindset into the design process to enable more exploratory and innovative design for both performance and craftsmanship

• Balance commercial opportunity with long-term innovation—identifying where to expand, where to refine, and where to push boundaries for future success.

• Lead, coach, and develop a multi-disciplinary team of designers, fostering a high-performance creative culture that unlocks individual and team potential.

• Champion transformation and support the brand’s long-term growth ambitions through design excellence and fresh creative thinking.

What you'll need to thrive:

• 10+ years of consumer product design experience, ideally within performance, outdoor, or technical apparel and equipment.

• Deep expertise in Product Design, Visual/Brand Design, and Graphic Design.

• Experience leading and inspiring design teams—driving team building, mentoring, and developing multi-disciplinary creative capability.

• A proven ability to foster a strong, inclusive design culture across an organisation.

• A leadership approach grounded in empathy, clarity, and a commitment to professional growth.

• Are passionate about sustainability and foster this approach across the entire design organisation

• Deep knowledge of product craft, pattern cutting and product make, working with a variety of supply chain partners and strategically foster new relationships

• Demonstrated ability to align design strategy with broader commercial and brand goals.

• Strong design thinking, conceptual exploration, and problem-solving skills.

• Excellent storytelling skills to articulate design vision, purpose, and value.

• Experience optimising design processes—research, ideation, prototyping, testing, and delivery.

• Strong capability in resource planning, project prioritisation, and workflow management.

• Ability to integrate consumer insight, user research, and data into design decision-making.

• Experience managing budgets and resourcing for design functions.

• Proven success driving innovation and leading design-led transformation.

Alongside a competitive salary and discretionary bonus, we offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your wellbeing, flexibility, and life outside work. This includes generous holiday allowance with the option to buy more, hybrid and flexible working, enhanced family leave, pension and financial protection, wellbeing support, travel schemes, and generous discounts across Pentland Brands and selected retail partners. You can find full details of our benefits and perks on our UK Benefits page .

The Interview Process

We want our interview process to feel clear, straightforward, and supportive. If your experience and expectations look like a strong match for the role, here’s what you can expect next:

1. Talent Team Intro Call - A 30-minute video call with our Talent Team to get to know each other, talk through the role and your experience, and answer any questions you have.

2. Experience Interview - A more in-depth interview with the hiring manager to explore your skills, experience and approach, and how these align with the role, our principles, and our ways of working.

3. In-Person Interview - An in-person meeting at our office to continue the conversation from your experience interview. This stage may also include discussion of any task or preparation shared in advance.

4. Final Interview - A final in-person interview at our office, focused on deeper discussion and practical application, giving you the chance to meet more of the team and see Pentland Brands in action.